Japan’s fifth-ranked Kei Nishikori, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza were among players announced for Monday’s 10th Tennis Showdown in New York.
The annual Madison Square Garden event adopts an “Americas versus the World” theme and World Team Tennis format this year, pitting North and South America stars against global rivals in first-to-five-game sets with no ad scoring.
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt will captain a World side that features Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up and bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics; Spain’s seventh-ranked Muguruza, who won her first Grand Slam title last year at Roland Garros, and 17th-ranked Aussie Nick Kyrgios, who ousted world number two Novak Djokovic from the Mexico Open on Thursday.
Retired US star Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, captains an Americas side with 13th-ranked compatriot Williams, 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and American Jack Sock, a Rio Olympic mixed doubles champion who ranks a career-best 18th in singles this week.
Hewitt, the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon winner who retired last year, will join Kyrgios to face Roddick and Sock in doubles before the captains meet in singles.
Nishikori and Muguruza meet Williams and Del Potro in mixed doubles next before Williams and Muguruza meet in singles, followed by Sock against Kyrgios and Del Potro facing Nishikori to finish the evening.
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